Iceberg Theory: Show 10%, Know 100% - Hemingway's Worldbuilding Principle
Ernest Hemingway had a simple rule for writing: if you know something well enough, you can omit it, and the reader will feel its presence like the bulk of an iceberg beneath the water. He called it the Iceberg Theory (or the Theory of Omission), and it’s perhaps the most powerful worldbuilding principle ever articulated. Show only the tip—10% of what you know. But you must know the other 90%. ...